Former National Security Agency analyst Russ Tice, a Bush-era whistle-blower, recently made startling claims that the federal government’s wiretap endeavors targeted high-ranking government officials, including military officials, lawmakers and diplomats.

One of those target wound up being elected president. In appearance on “The Boiling Frogs Show” on Wednesday, Tice made the astonishing claim that the NSA had ordered wiretaps on phones connected to then-Democratic Senate hopeful Barack Obama in 2004, weeks prior to his breakout speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston.

“Now, here’s the big one,” Tice said. “I haven’t given you any names. This was in summer of 2004. One of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a 40-something-year-old wannabe senator for Illinois. You wouldn’t happen to know where that guy lives right now, would you? It’s a big white house in Washington, D.C. That’s who they went after, and that’s the president of the United States now.”